The present invention is in certain respects an outgrowth of the principles set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,543 issued to Voth et al on July 12, 1977 and titled Crop Density Sensing Mechanism For Baler Loading Apparatus. In said patent, the importance of precompression of crop charges before they are introduced into the main baling chamber is discussed, although particularly in regard to the formation of relatively large bales weighing in the neighborhood of fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds. It is emphasized that formation of a perfectly shaped and densified charge of material prior to stuffing is so important that, in the event the forming charge has not fully accumulated within the loading duct prior to the time that such charge would normally be stuffed into the main baling chamber, the next successive stuffing cycle and any additionally required such cycles thereafter are skipped until such time as the proper charge has indeed been accumulated and prepared.
Such temporary halt in the stuffing cycles may be necessary in large balers of the type described in said patent because the windows which such a large baler receives are typically so small that the large loading duct simply cannot be filled to capacity and the charge properly densified by the time the next stuffing cycle is to begin. On the other hand, with smaller balers of the variety in which the produced bales are on the order of from forty to one hundred ten pounds, the window size has not been found to be a particular problem. Yet proper densification of each charge before stuffing the same into the bale case has been found to be extremely beneficial insofar as finished bale quality is concerned.